


Turning on a Dime, April 7, 1971

by MissAtomicBomb77



Series: For the Greater Good, Let's Do the News [19]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-07 09:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAtomicBomb77/pseuds/MissAtomicBomb77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie wasn’t watching the road ahead of them until it was almost too late. There was large popping sound and then the sound of skidding and he sees out of the corner of his eye as the lead vehicle flips over</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turning on a Dime, April 7, 1971

April 7, 1971  
10:13 am  
Highway Four, Southeast bound  
Cambodia

There is a slight breeze in the air. The general consensus was that the rain season was late this year and the breeze gives hope that the rain will finally come. Lee and Charlie are like teenagers in the back of the jeep now, he’s got his arm around her and she’s laughing into the wind. Phat is driving today and it’s just the three of them in the vehicle. There are two jeeps in front of them, one from the Associated Press, and another from the Times. Behind their jeep was a battered Mercedes with a man from the Japanese press and a few members of the Cambodian local press.

Charlie wasn’t watching the road ahead of them until it was almost too late. There was large popping sound and then the sound of skidding and he sees out of the corner of his eye as the lead vehicle flips over. Phat has to stop their jeep, but he was traveling too close and they skid out to the right and the driver’s side hits the rear of other vehicle that was in front of them that was forced to stop because of the first vehicle flipping over. The whole action of coming to a stop and crashing was bad enough, but it was the other sounds, too familiar that begin to scare him. Slow at first but rapid and now consistent, gunfire.

Lee didn’t scream she didn’t have time to process what was happening. Charlie had leaned over her as the jeep made impact with the vehicle in front of them, because she was on the passenger’s side, furthest from the impact. She looks up at him, about to ask if he’s alright but he’s looking around wildly and because it takes her half a second longer to recognize what he already has. Lee lets out a yelp as the jeep drops on the passenger’s side as the tires are shot out. Charlie and Phat bail out over the backside of the jeep and Charlie hastily grabs Lee’s arm with a great amount of force and drags her over the side with him.

Her beige linen pants catch on something as she goes over the side of the jeep and she hears the tear but is more afraid of landing on her head at this point even though Charlie has a death grip on her left arm. His grip on her is so tight she’s knows that it’s going to bruise. Phat and Charlie have their backs against the jeep now and Charlie pulled her to land in his lap so that her head is now in his chest and he’s wrapped his arms around her. “Stay quiet, stay quiet.” He tells her. He was unable to protect her ass from landing roughly on the ground so it takes her a moment to absorb the pain and draw her legs in to sit against him.

He’s trying not to crush her, but he doesn’t want her to see what’s going on either. Charlie is trying to process what’s happening. The gunfire has faded but not stopped. Whoever shot at the jeeps most likely felt that they were a threat and not the press, but he’s not sure who is actually firing at them. The Cambodians hate it when the press is uninvited, but tolerate them and he’s had no practical experience with the Viet Cong to know their feelings on the matter. He also doesn’t want to find that out either. He just wants to find a way to get Lee out of here.

Charlie looks to the left now and sees that the white Mercedes that was behind them has pulled over, the windows and tires on the passengers’ side were shot out. The four men that were in the vehicle were taking their cues from the jeeps in front of them and were hiding on the driver’s side of the vehicle. The only thought Charlie has is that they have to retreat to the east and they all have to get the hell off the road.

He takes his hands and cups Lee’s ears so that she’s unable to hear him so he can talk to Phat; he knows she’s not about to agree to what needs to be done. She knows at once what he’s doing. She shoots daggers from her eyes at him, even though he’s not looking at her as she claws at his hands. Lee’s drawn blood from one of his hands as she struggles against him. “I’m taking her over to the group in the back and they’re going to get off the road to head east. I’ll come back and see if we can do anything for the bastards in the first jeep and follow.”

Phat nods in agreement and Charlie releases Lee and grabs both of her arms. “Listen to me, we’re going to run to the car there and then off the road to the south and lay low, working east, you hear me?”

She wants to argue, she knows he hasn’t told her everything but the look on his face and the sparse gunfire in the air makes the opportunity to counter argue not right. She nods and he pulls her to her feet in a crouching position. She looks down the paved road to the car. It seems so far away but in reality it’s only about twenty yards.

“Fast as you can, stay to my right, on three!” he barks to her and she nods. “One, two, three!”

It’s a lifetime and the gunfire swells in his ears, they’re fresh targets but unexpected so they are missed. He was trying to get a look at the jungle and was unable to make out any disenable source or location in which the gunfire was coming from or going to. The men that were using the car as a shield understood that they were coming towards them and moved back to give them a chance to use the front of the car as shelter. When they were close enough, Charlie gave Lee a good shove and one of the men reached out for her. He was barely behind the safety of the wheel before he turned back around and ran.

She’s struggling to sit up and is reaching for Charlie before she realizes… he’s not there. He’s running back to Phat. He’s leaving her behind. She’s pushing the strange arms off her and she can’t help herself now. “CHARLIE!” She screams.

She wishes the minute it leaves her mouth she hadn’t.

He faltered for one second, long enough and she saw his torso suddenly shift violently to the left, throwing his right shoulder in the air. He manages to right himself and continue to move. To his credit, he closed the distance and found himself leaning back against the jeep, Phat at his side. He reaches for his right shoulder at once. Charlie knows what’s happened already, the pain is all too familiar. A bullet grazed his shoulder and the blood is hot and sticky. Well, fuck, he thinks to himself and hopes that this is the last of the day’s bad luck.

It takes three sets of arms to hold her back, all fire and fury arms and legs kicking. They’re dragging her back and they don’t have time to discuss a plan because glass breaks over their heads. Gunfire is now from the opposite direction. Just unsure what to do, these four men drag the struggling woman and themselves off the road, now on the opposite side of the car, the north side and they run the thirty or so yards into the jungle, dragging her with them.

Charlie saw them round the car but he was having his own problems as they were under fire from the opposite direction as well now. Charlie rolls under the Jeep now, shoulder burning but it was the fastest way he saw to get out of the line of fire. He barely clears the other side and Phat is right behind. They move up towards the crashed jeep and Charlie tries to see if there’s anything that can be done for the lead jeep. Keeping low, he rounds the other jeep at the front and encounters three others, the guys from the New York Times. He nods towards the lead jeep and one of the guys screams that they’re dead.

“We’ve got to get off the road,” Charlie yells. “South!”

“Isn’t that who’s firing now?” One of the guys yells.

“South is most likely friendly, let’s go!” The five men run off the road and throw themselves flat against the ground once they are off. The slow crawl begins and they start to head east, trying to get away from the fire fight. Charlie is straining to see ahead, but doesn’t see anyone else and he knows that the other party is off the road. He just doesn’t know where they are. He’s struggling with the throbbing that has not yet turned to complete pain in his shoulder. It’s a graze, really, but it stings and it’s bleeding a ridiculous amount of blood. Phat nods him towards the edges of the jungle and Charlie follows as the other men continue to move low on the ground away from the firefight.

Phat begins to rip at Charlie’s shirt to wrap the wound. Charlie is beyond lucky; it is literally a scrape and will heal over if he takes care of it. It’s just the bleeding that’s the annoyance and Phat takes care of that the best he’s able with the pieces of Charlie’s shirt sleeve. The gunfire is fading and Phat asks what Charlie is thinking. “Did you see where the others went?”

“No, did you?”

Phat shakes his head. “No.”

Charlie takes a moment now and looks at the back of his left hand where there’s a crescent from Lee’s fingernail, the one spot she was able to draw blood from him as she struggled against him while discussing the escape plan. It was now a glaring indication that he shouldn’t have kept her from hearing what he was going to do.

The day’s bad luck has only started, he realizes.


End file.
